# The 100 Greatest Britons
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-100-greatest-britons/124931
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [August 21, 2002, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-100-greatest-britons/124931 "2002-08-21T15:26:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2002, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-100-greatest-britons/124931/1 "2002-08-21T15:26:07Z")
The BBC has announced the results of a public opinion poll on the 100 Greatest Britons of all time.
The results strongly suggest that drug abuse in the U.K. has gotten out of hand.
Passing over the question of whether so many pop stars should have made the list, what sort of mass stupidity enshrines Johnny Rotten and Cliff Richard, but leaves off Pete Townshend and Mick Jagger? Are you people daft? And what sort of reasoning places three of the Beatles on the list, but omits Ringo?
As for more consequential matters, is there some compelling reason to place the Queen Mother on the list of greatest Britons, apart from a mass delusion that lime-green coordinated outfits are a sign of greatness?
Aleister Crowley made the list. Cool.
[Here’s the list](http://www.click2houston.com/sh/news/stories/archive/nat-news-archive-162476220020821-080807.html).
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2002, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-100-greatest-britons/124931/2 "2002-08-21T15:47:21Z")
Oops—sorry, Jack, I started this same thread in MPSIMS, not knowing you’d started it here.
Julie Andrews? Guy Fawkes? Oh, well, it was a call-in vote by obviously deranged BBC viewers . . .
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2002, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-100-greatest-britons/124931/3 "2002-08-21T15:55:54Z")
And where the hell is Alec Guinness?
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2002, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-100-greatest-britons/124931/4 "2002-08-21T15:58:44Z")
I think the fine British art of taking the piss was in evidence here. I’m surprised the teletubbies weren’t listed.
Having said that:
Ringo is not the best drummer in the world.
I’m also surprised to see James Connelly there, since he was Irish.
I myself would have put Princess Diana top of the list, because she was truly the People’s Princess.
Did I say People’s Princess? Sorry, I meant a parasitic English equivalent of Ivana Trump.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2002, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-100-greatest-britons/124931/5 "2002-08-21T16:00:22Z")
Oh yeah, Bob Geldof’s Irish too.
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### Author:  [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2002, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-100-greatest-britons/124931/6 "2002-08-21T16:02:44Z")
The list includes Boy George and David Beckham, but leaves out Christopher Marlowe, W.R. and John Webster? Tony “Oi’ve dumped me peerage” Benn and Enoch “Rivers of Blood” Powell are in, but Anthony Trollope and Agatha christie are out?
And they included Robbie Williams and left out Roger Waters?
Wankers!
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### Author:  [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2002, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-100-greatest-britons/124931/7 "2002-08-21T16:03:04Z")
Let’s substitute him in for Oliver Cromwell.
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### Author:  [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2002, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-100-greatest-britons/124931/8 "2002-08-21T16:20:09Z")
John Lydon - Hurrah !
Freddie Murcury, David Bowie, Tony Blair… 😃
Which Richard Burton ?
We get Bono but not Oscar Wilde ??? - can we trade ?
- do we know who/what/where/when the poll was done. Is it supposed to be representative of the entire population or was it arranged courtesy of Rent-a-Retard inc. (make that ‘retarded’ if offeneded. Sorry) ?
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### Author:  [@partly\_warmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/partly_warmer)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2002, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-100-greatest-britons/124931/9 "2002-08-21T16:37:56Z")
Wasn’t this same sort of poll done just a couple years ago? By the Times, was it?
Then it was a runoff between Elizabeth I, Shakespeare, Newton, and John Lennon (I remember vaguely). All four made substantial changes to Britain and to the world.
Fan that I am, the Beatles just do not weigh in that heavily.
As for putting Freddie Mercury, Charlie Chaplin, and Julie Andrews on the list … doesn’t that repudiate the validity of the poll? I wouldn’t even know who Freddie Mercury was, if my sister hadn’t been a fan.
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### Author:  [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2002, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-100-greatest-britons/124931/10 "2002-08-21T16:46:00Z")
Sorry, that should be W.G. Grace. (famous 19th-century cricketer for the clueless Seppos) And where’s P.G. Wodehouse?
I can only conclude that the sample population watch more TV (and not Channel 4) than read books.
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### Author:  [@keithnmick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/keithnmick)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2002, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-100-greatest-britons/124931/11 "2002-08-21T17:04:06Z")
I’m wondering where Dangermouse is. 101st?
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### Author:  [@Diane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diane)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2002, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-100-greatest-britons/124931/12 "2002-08-21T17:17:20Z")
Why in the hell didn’t our own London\_Calling make the list? Hummmph!
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### Author:  [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2002, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-100-greatest-britons/124931/13 "2002-08-21T17:17:47Z")
John Cleese???
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### Author:  [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2002, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-100-greatest-britons/124931/14 "2002-08-21T17:26:15Z")
I’m a little farther down, **Diane**. Somewhere between Benny Hilll and Eddie the Eagle.
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### Author:  [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2002, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-100-greatest-britons/124931/15 "2002-08-22T07:41:37Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by partly\_warmer \*
> \*\*I wouldn’t even know who Freddie Mercury was, if my sister hadn’t been a fan. \*\*
:eek:
Say, where the hell is Vinnie Jones on this list? But seriously: where’s Geoff Hurst?
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### Author:  [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2002, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-100-greatest-britons/124931/16 "2002-08-22T09:51:08Z")
I was under the impression that the beatles were from the ‘Peoples Republic of Thieving Scousers’, so how come they’re counted as British?
J.K. Rowling. WTF?
The key problem with this poll is that it was a_public_ poll, so necessarily involving the great slack-jawed inbreds of the UK.
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### Author:  [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2002, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-100-greatest-britons/124931/17 "2002-08-22T11:48:28Z")
Robbie Williams AND William Shakespeare…hmmmm yea I’m seeing the connection.
Isn’t Bono a Bog-Leaper?
Where oh where is the cast from Dads Army/Robins Nest/Liver Birds?
Just glad to see Sir Ed Hilary wasn’t claimed as a Pom (sorry Briton)
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### Author:  [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2002, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-100-greatest-britons/124931/18 "2002-08-22T12:03:18Z")
Exactly as **Andy** said – this isn’t an objective study, it’s a popular poll.
What would you expect if it had been, say, a poll of the ‘man on the street’ in the US?
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2002, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-100-greatest-britons/124931/19 "2002-08-22T12:09:48Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Crusoe \*
> \*\*Exactly as **Andy** said – this isn’t an objective study, it’s a popular poll.
>
> What would you expect if it had been, say, a poll of the ‘man on the street’ in the US? \*\*
I have faith that Freddie Mercury would still have been named.
But Cliff Richard would definitely have been replaced by another of civilization’s icons.
Like Chubby Checker.
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### Author:  [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2002, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-100-greatest-britons/124931/20 "2002-08-22T12:25:32Z")
Britney Spears? It wouldn’t surprise me (and that’s not a slur against America, but a cynical belief that most people asked on the spot think of who’s familiar).
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